The topic, "the right to smoke", is a little misleading.

A few interesting articles.

http://www.hemp.org/prohibition.php

http://www.thc-foundation.org/

http://www.naihc.org/hemp_information/hemp_facts.html

I do not know if medical marijuana is right for me, but I do know most of the meds I have been given are not. It can not be any worse than some of the other drugs I have been given. They have caused me set backs of several months each. At least two medications I have been given have been pull off the market and at least another had a recall because they have killed people. One pain medication I was given had a retail cost of $500 a month and it was the generic form. Medical marijuana could keep more money in Alabama. Also you do not have to smoke marijuana. You can use a vaporizer, put in food like candy and baked goods. I am tired of pills. One I am taking now I have to take another 5 for one of the side effects. No drug is 100% safe. Sick people need the choice of medical marijuana, which safer and better for many. Please contact you Alabama House and Senate members and ask them to support the bill when it comes up for a vote. Thank You

It's time for Alabama to join the other 14 states which have legalized the compassionate use of medical marijuana.

It just makes no sense at all, from any standpoint, to harass, arrest and prosecute sick people for using the medicine that works best to relieve their suffering.

If law enforcement must have a drug war, shouldn't we at least get the sick and dying off the battlefield first?

The majority of residents in the state favor this. Let's have some leadership from the politicians, and get this done.

If marijuana is legalized so be it. One thing that will have to be included in the law is "where" it can legally be consumed.I for one do not want to smell the smoke of a cigarette and certainly not a narcotic/hallucinating drug while in public.

Thanks to you Penny Vaughan for echoing the same common sense that was behind my letter in the Star just a few weeks ago. Additionally I thank the Anniston Star for publishing our letters on such an issue.

These days we have a pill for everything. The major pharmaceutical companies do not have our interest at heart. Their driving force is profit. It stands to reason that if they can keep us addicted by pushing products like the opiates I and many others are prescribed they can keep the profits up. These companies have no motivation to make you better.

An alarming number of even children are being prescribed anti depressants everyday as these companies try to addict the next generation. Addicted kids means addicted adults in the years to come. No wonder Big Pharma had their hands in making marijuana illegal over 70 years ago. They couldn't control it since it was something that could be grown by anyone (and had been for centuries) and it limited their profits.

I have to say I respect Driq for his stance in refusing to become a criminal in the eyes of the law and choosing to "endure it". I myself don't accept that, I'll be a criminal before I'll be an addict. Honestly, in my younger days I was both. Being a criminal was undoubtably the safer of the two.

Because I live each day in pain, some days worse than others, I use marijuana an average of 3 or 4 times a week (mostly in edible form) to offset my Oxycontin usage and have for years. Marijuana helped me move away from the opiate addiction and allows me to control my pain and muscle spasms without the risk of dependance. I still use my Oxycontin on bad days when I'm in so much pain marijuana can't take care of it by itself and I'm okay with that. I'm not okay with using Oxycontin twice daily as prescribed and becoming an addicted slave to the pharmaceutical companies again.

Chris Butts

Cullman, Alabama

I agree FreeMMJ...no where in Mrs. Vaughan's letter is the word 'smoke' even used. Makes me wonder why the media makes up such headlines. I don't think the Anniston Star is opposed to medical marijuana. They have always been very friendly to me and have printed almost every single letter I have ever sent in...but headlines like this tend to rile up the opposition and bring the anti-smoking crowd into the debate...and that is less than helpful.

Great letter Penny!!!

And DrIQ...we will get this bill passed and hopefully when you get to try it your lifelong suffering will be eased.

I would also like to add...the title the paper gave this editorial is a bit misleading, considering there are many ways to consume cannabis. Eating, tinctures, & oils r just a few of the other methods by which patients use cannabis. Smoking is not always the preferred method, but the quickest way for immediate relief.

God Bless you Driq. We can only hope & pray that our hard work to pass HB207, the Micheal Phillips Compassionate Care Act, will pay off with our right to use cannabis for pain and other symptoms. For more information on the medical marijuana movement in Alabama, please visit Alabamians for Compassionate Care @ http://compassionate-care.blogspot.com/ or find them on FaceBook.

I've lived over half of my nearly 77 years in chronic and debilitating pain and used many prescription drugs to try to alleviate my pain which has grown increasingly worse over the past few years. None of them helped me and several of them made me feel worse. If I could just legally try marijuana to see if it will help I would do it, but as long as our current law would make me a criminal for trying to ease my pain I guess I'll just have to endure it.....but that's not compassionate or even humane.